Speedrunning Rules on Warcraft Logs
This article aims to shed light on some general speedrunning rules for all the games on Warcraft Logs. This is created to avoid misunderstandings and loopholes, and to define more clearly what we will take action against.
If you have any feedback or questions regarding these rules, please join us either on Discord or contact us on [email protected].
Trash Mobs
Requirements
Trash requirements are the most basic requirement in speedrunning. We have a list of trash mobs that are required to die during your run. This is both to verify that the entire run has been completed without preclearing, and to prevent a meta of invis potting/bubble pulling away to skip by trash packs.
These requirements are sometimes not complete, but every mob in the same pack as a required mob is explicitly considered a required mob. We sometimes have lower requirements to make them less overwhelming and to prevent incorrect time penalties or invalidations due to game bugs (such as missing death events in the combat log).
Spirit of the Rules
If we think your run violates the spirit of the rules or breaks in-game rules, we will blacklist it. This includes things (but is not limited to) like:
- Forcing trash to respawn/despawn
- Resetting a pack that contains required trash after the only required mobs are dead
- Out-of-bounds skips/pulls
- Editing or combining logs
There's also some whitelisted tech that we will allow, even if discovered in the final week. This includes things like:
- Gothik gate skip
- Pulling multiple bosses together (when done in a way that doesn't break other rules like out-of-bounds)
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at Discord or [email protected].
Pre-clearing Rule
Pre-clearing trash is not allowed. We reserve the right to disqualify, blacklist, or ban any attempts to circumvent the intention of the trash requirements.
The exception here is when a speedrun starts on the pull or death of the first boss. This will be indicated in each raid's speedrunning article. When a speedrun starts with the pull or death of the first boss, preclearing the trash prior to that boss is allowed. Preclearing trash after that boss is still not allowed.
Combat Log Limitations
All runs must be valid by automated combat log checks. There is no manual validation if you encounter a combat log bug from Blizzard, or if you have gone out of the combat logging range. The combat logging range is a part of the game. Attempting to bypass it by combining logs will result in blacklists, as well as potential account bans for those who upload edited logs.
The combat logging range in instances can vary depending on Blizzard. The default is 100 yards.
Video Requirements
A top 10 World Speedrun needs to provide a VOD attached to the log at the end of a partition.
If someone challenges your top 10 run, and you don't have a VOD attached, the run will be blacklisted. A lack of VOD is treated as proof of a rules violation.
The Warcraft Logs team will not actively monitor the top 10 VODs; we are not speedrunners. This requirement is intended as a means for the community to self-police.
Currently, there is no requirement for an instance reset to be included in this VOD; however, we may require it at a later point.
Boss Rules
If something is banned for parsing, it will generally also invalidate a speedrun. This includes various buffs (depending on your game version), items, and more. Please ensure you read the parsing rules for your raid to familiarize yourselves with them.
Penalties
We have general penalties and those that apply to specific game versions. The game-specific ones will be in the raid's specific speedrunning rules article.
Swap Penalty
There is a 1-minute time penalty per character swap.
Contact Us
Thank you for all your feedback throughout the years of Speedrunning. Join us on Discord to discuss any further rule changes.